Friday, 29 April 2011

Piquet in breakthrough Truck result

Nelson Piquet Jr claimed a breakthrough second place finish in Friday night's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Nashville Speedway.

The Brazilian was making his 10th start in the series, which he joined in 2010, in the fifth points event of the year. He qualified an impressive fourth in what was his first ever race at the 1.33-mile concrete oval and ran in the top 10 all night. Piquet started moving towards the front in the deciding stages of the race, enjoying a number of close battles including one with Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon, who spun on the inside of Piquet while battling for fourth place.

The former Formula 1 driver, who is in his first full season in NASCAR driving the #8 Chevrolet Silverado for KHI - owned by NASCAR star Kevin Harvick - was fourth at the final restart of the race, the green flag waving with only three laps remaining. While former series champion Ron Hornaday tried to beat a dominant Kyle Busch, Piquet quickly moved up to third by driving around the outside of former Red Horse Racing team-mate and Truck race-winner Timothy Peters.